by Joshua Hook | Jan 17, 2020 | Family
I was talking with a friend, and she expressed sadness about the lack of support she was feeling from her family of origin. She and her husband were thinking about having kids, and my friend felt like they would be all alone in that process. She had an idea of what...
by Joshua Hook | Oct 28, 2019 | Love
I recently listened to a talk by Eugene Cho, and he shared something that was quite impactful for me. He held up a $100 bill in his hand, and asked the audience if they wanted it. Everyone said yes. Then he crumpled up the $100 bill, and asked the audience if they...
by Joshua Hook | Oct 26, 2019 | Rules
Awhile back, my class at church went through the book of Luke. At the beginning of Chapter 6, two stories are presented about Jesus and the Sabbath. Working on the Sabbath In the first story, some of Jesus’ followers were hungry, so they picked some grain and ate it....
by Joshua Hook | Sep 29, 2019 | Love
The other day, I had the opportunity to hear Bob Goff speak. For those of you who don’t know Bob, he’s the author of one of my favorite books, “Love Does.” (If you haven’t read it, check it out!) Bob has a lot of energy and is a great storyteller. It was awesome to...
by Joshua Hook | Sep 11, 2019 | Sex
I have written in a previous post about a problem that occurs when Christians focus too much on purity—it can hinder our ability to love. Problems With Sexual Development Today I want to talk about another problem I have noticed sometimes when there is a very strong...
by Joshua Hook | Jun 12, 2019 | Faith
I’m reading an interesting book by Peter Enns called “The Sin of Certainty.” The basic idea is that as Christians, we often define faith as being certain that what we believe is true. I could connect with this. As a kid growing up in the church, what mattered most was...
by Joshua Hook | May 29, 2019 | Diversity
It’s important to give people space for their own journey. So often we want to push people to see things from our perspective. But this strategy doesn’t usually work. Religion and Sexuality Here’s an example that happened in my own life: One issue I...
by Joshua Hook | Apr 26, 2019 | Love
One of my favorite books is “The Return of the Prodigal Son” by Henri Nouwen. In the book, Nouwen discusses the parable of The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), and he also walks the reader through his reflections on the painting, “The Return of the...
by Joshua Hook | Apr 10, 2019 | Virtue
I was reading an interesting paper the other day, and the authors argued that the key virtues for a good life can each be found in the movie “The Wizard of Oz.” The 3 virtues are each connected to one of the 3 “helpers” that Dorothy meets along her...
by Joshua Hook | Apr 1, 2019 | Need
Author Jim Dethmer writes that any issue we are dealing with in our life actually reflects a want. And all of our issues and wants boil down to three core wants—(1) security, (2) approval, and (3) control. Security Security is the most basic want, because it has to do...
